They emerged from the door in the middle of a small cafe. There were little round tables scattered about with bean bag chairs around them. The place was mostly empty except for one familiar looking creature sitting by the wall sipping a cup of some sort of hot beverage while staring intently at a book.

"Oh no," Zeke said. "Don't look now but that's Trevor Mastodon sitting over there."

"So it is," Max said. "Why don't you go talk to him? Maybe we can figure out if we've gone back far enough."

"Me? Why should I talk to him?"

"You're the one who was friends with him," Max shrugged.

"I wouldn't say we were friends," Zeke said. "I hung out with him one night and briefly joined his cause, but to be fair, I was coerced."

"Whatever. Sounds like you guys hit it off pretty well to me. Go over there and see if he recognizes you. That would be some useful information, don't you think?"

"I guess it would. But uh, I, like, kind of killed that guy. It's a little weird to go talk to him now."

"Yeah, but that was in his future. He doesn't know you're the one who punches his ticket. What are you afraid of?"

"Didn't he also swallow Dr. Octavius's clone whole in one gulp? What if he did that to me right now? What if I kill him in his future but then he kills me in his past? That could happen, right? It wouldn't even necessarily screw up the timeline because then I'd just always be dead now and you could go on and complete this mission without me. Did you ever think about that? Nothing says we both have to survive this little adventure."

"Would you stop being such a wuss?" Max asked. "He's not going to just attack you for no reason. Besides, how tough is he really? He looks like a big nerd over there reading his book."

"Tough guys read books," Zeke said.

"Well, that's true. I do read books sometimes. And I look awesome while doing it, unlike that guy. But all that's beside the point. We're in a cafe. He's not going to assault you in public just for asking him a few questions."

"Have you ever met Trevor Mastodon?" Zeke asked. "He's not exactly known for his restraint. Plus again, I'm pretty sure that time he swallowed Dr. Octavius's clone he was in public. In front of a big crowd of people if I'm not mistaken."

"What do you know about that? You weren't even there. You were off fighting your talking flowers if I remember correctly."

"They were really scary flowers. And big. Did I mention they were big?"

"Well then this guy should be nothing compared to those flowers, right?"

"Well, that's true. Those were some truly terrifying flowers."

""Plus, you've already defeated him before when you killed him, remember? You've got this. You're way more of a bad-ass than he is."

"Okay, you're right. I can do this. I've beaten him before I can do it again. Although I can't kill him this time because that would definitely screw up the timeline. All right, just give me a second to hype myself up."

Max gave Zeke a solid shove causing him to bump into Trevor Mastodon's table, which in turn caused his piping hot beverage to spill into his lap.

"Ow! That's hot!" Trevor Mastodon shouted as he leaped out of his seat. "You stupid buffoon! What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm terribly sorry about that, sir. Please allow me to clean that up for you." Zeke searched around for napkins, but all he saw was a box that dispensed something that looked like sandpaper. He shrugged his shoulders and grabbed several sheets of it and began vigorously rubbing Trevor Mastodon's crotch with them.

"You moron!" Trevor Mastodon shouted as he smacked him in the head. "Those are for cleaning your teeth. Again, what in the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"

"Just trying to help. Say, aren't you Trevor Mastodon?"

"Yes. That's me."

"Do you know who I am?" Zeke asked.

"You mean aside from the idiot who poured steaming hot java on me and then tried to sand off my balls? No, I've never seen you in my life. How do you know my name?"

"I'm pretty sure I attended one of your anti-tourism rallies. You gave a great speech."

"Anti-tourism rallies?" Trevor Mastodon asked with a confused look on his face.

"Yeah, you know how the tourists are the cause of everything that's wrong here and you need to clip off some dude's toenails to make sure no more tourists ever come here or something like that. I was always pretty fuzzy on the details of your plan."

"Toenails? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You don't know about the toenails?"

"No. Are you high?"

"I don't think so. What about Dr. Octavius? That guy really sucks, right? He's the one bringing all the tourists here. Or something like that."

"Dr. Octavius? I've never heard of him."

"Oh, that's good," Zeke said. "He's a real bad man. I hate that guy. And you should, too. Along with tourists because they're just awful, am I right?"

"Well, now that you mention it, we do have an overabundance of tourists here," Trevor Mastodon said while rubbing his chin. "I've always viewed them as more of a nuisance than anything. But perhaps you're right. Maybe if we eliminated them entirely we could make Quartzwater City a better place. I will be sure to keep a close eye out for this Dr. Octavius person you mention. He sounds like he's someone who needs to be snuffed out as well. You may be an idiot, but you have given me much to ponder today."

"All right, well, good day to you then, sir." Zeke gave a little salute and walked back to Max. "He's never heard of Dr. Octavius and he never met me. I think we're in the right time."

"That's good, but I think you might have just planted the anti-tourist idea in his head," Max said.

"I did?"

"Yeah, you tipped him off about Dr. Octavius, too. I think you were responsible all along for unleashing Trevor Mastodon on the world. You created a monster."

"Uh, oops."

"Well, he had to get created somehow I suppose," Max shrugged. "Doesn't really matter if you were the one who did it or if it was some other asshole. The important thing is we're where we need to be in the time continuum. So now let's hustle over to the Buttermoss Gardens, drop this door in the bottom of the pond, and cross over to your universe."

"Yes, I suppose we ought to do that," Zeke said as he glanced back at Trevor Mastodon who had ordered another drink and was sipping it with a thoughtful look on his face.